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Awards and Accolades

Rankings

U.S. Presidential Appointments

  • Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science Alumnus David S. Ferriero was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and he is Archivist of the United States at the National Archives and Records Administration.
  • Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) Alumnus Winston Tabb, and GSLIS Instructor Mary Minow, were nominated in 2010 by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and now serve on the National Museum and Library Services Board. The board is an advisory body for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.
  • President Barack Obama designated Alumna and Simmons College Trustee Carol Waller Pope as chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

Recognition and Reputation

  • For the fifth consecutive year, Simmons College was named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its students' volunteer contributions to the community in 2010. Simmons College is the only college in Massachusetts to have received the "Honor Roll With Distinction" designation four times since the honor roll began in 2006. The "Honor Roll With Distinction" designation is given to schools that have exhibited significant community service. The Center played a significant role in engaging more than 2,600 undergraduate and graduate students in 53,700 hours of community service activities at the College.
  • In the fall 2011, the National Communications Association awarded the Simmons Communications Department the Rex Mix Program of Excellence Award. The award recognizes communication departments with a strong curriculum and broad student engagement and enrichment opportunities such as internships, service learning and community engagement experiences, and student/faculty research. Also in 2011, the student-run magazine produced by the Communications Department, COMMTRACKS, was named a Gold Medalist by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, which is affiliated with the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.
  • The Simmons School of Management featured in the inaugural Global Corporate Citizenship Honor Roll, which is organized by the United Nations Association of Greater Boston, to recognize the Massachusetts-based companies that have signed on to key business principles through the UN Global Compact. The School of Management was recognized "to highlight the leaders in our community around sustainable development and corporate citizenship."
  • Simmons was recognized with Gold LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council for its School of Management and Academic Building, which opened in 2009. As of fall 2011, only five other academic institutions in Boston have Gold or above LEED-certified buildings.

Faculty and Staff Recognition and Awards

  • Simmons College Nutrition Professor Teresa Fung, Sc. D., played a crucial role in the development of the Best Diets rankings, released by U.S. News & World Report. Fung was a member of an invited panel of 22 health experts, each carefully selected and relied on by U.S. News to develop its rankings. The experts reviewed information on 20 well-known diets, from Atkins to Zone, and rated each diet on specific measures such as heart health and nutritional completeness.
  • Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science Professor Maureen Sullivan has been elected 2012-2013 president of the American Library Association (ALA). The ALA is the oldest and largest library association in the world.
  • Simmons Tennis Coach Bob Rauseo was named the 2011 Great Northeast Athletic Conference Tennis Coach of the Year.
  • Simmons School of Social Work Professor Gary Bailey is serving a 3-year-term as president of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), a global organization of more than 700,000 social workers in more than 80 countries. Bailey is the first African-American and the first American in 20 years to serve as president of the IFSW.
  • Z. Annette Iglarsh, physical therapy department chair and professor in the Simmons School of Nursing and Health Sciences, was recognized by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) with its 2011 Health Policy and Administration (HPA) Section Outstanding Service Award. The award was presented for her extensive leadership, service, and mentorship to the profession, APTA, and HPA over the last 36 years.
  • Softball Volleyball head coach Alesia Vaccari was named Great Northeast Athletic Conference Volleyball Coach of the Year in her first season as head coach in fall 2011. Vaccari finished the year with a 20-10 overall record and 9-4 in conference play.

Student Recognition and Experience

  • Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science student Dominic McDevitt-Parks named the U.S. National Archives and Record Administration's first "wikipedian in residence" in summer 2011. McDevitt-Parks works as a liaison between the National Archives and the community of contributors who write and edit articles on the crowd-sourced digital encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
  • Simmons College Tennis team captured its fourth consecutive Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship, having compiled an undefeated (10-0) record for the fall 2011 season. The Sharks have won seven GNAC titles in the last eight years, including four back-to-back titles from 2008-2011. The championship match marked Simmons's 40th consecutive GNAC win dating back to the 2007 season.
  • The Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science's student chapter of the American Society of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) won the student chapter of the year award in 2011. Established in 1986, the annual Student Chapter of the Year Award recognizes outstanding student chapters for their participation in and contributions to ASIS&T and the advancement of information science.
  • The American Chemical Society (ACS) student chapter at Simmons received a Certificate of Achievement for its activities conducted during the 2010-11 academic year. ACS leadership has described Simmons' faculty engagement with the chapter as "representing the best in undergraduate science education and mentoring around the country." Simmons chemistry program has now been recognized by the ACS eight out of the last nine years.
  • Hannah Gomez, who is pursuing an M.A. in children's literature and M.S. in library science, is the 2011 recipient of the American Library Association Spectrum Scholarship, sponsored by the Young Adults and Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. The Spectrum Scholarship Program is ALA's national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of under-representation of critically needed ethnic librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future.
  • The Simmons School of Management student-lead Net Impact chapter received the prestigious "gold rating," a designation given to only 13% of Net Impact's 180 Net Impact members. Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization that works to equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world.
  • The Simmons Swimming and Diving team captured the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship in the fall 2011. The program has earned the title for the eighth consecutive year, and 10 of the last 11 years.
  • Two Simmons physical therapy students, Samantha Letizio and Andrew Oliver, were elected to two of the nine National Student Assembly positions available at the organization's annual Student Conclave in Minneapolis, Minnesota in fall 2011. This is considered a significant accomplishment, considered there are 213 physical therapy and 276 physical therapy assistant programs in the United States. It is also considered highly unusual for two students to be elected from the same program. 
  • Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science student Justin Daras was named the 2011 recipient of the Roger K. Summit Scholarship from the DIALOG/ProQuest corporation. The scholarship is awarded annually to a graduate student enrolled in an accredited library or information sciences program and demonstrates an understanding of Dialog services, academic achievement, and interest in the field of electronic information services.
  • Student Veronica Nowakowski was recognized by the American Chemical Society (ACS) with the 2012 Student Leadership Award. This award recognizes emerging undergraduate leaders and helps them further prepare for leadership opportunities at volunteer organizations and in their professional career where the ACS believes that they will have tremendous potential to be successful leaders. This is the second year in a row that a Simmons student has won the award.

Special Accreditation and Certification

  • The Simmons School of Management received accreditation from the prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. Less than 30 percent of business schools in the United States — and less than 5 percent worldwide — have earned and retained this distinguished hallmark of excellence in management education.
  • The Simmons Behavioral Analysis graduate program, which is accredited by the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), is one of only 13 schools in the country with this highly prestigious accreditation designation, and the only school in New England. The ABAI is an accrediting agency that calls for standards that "encourage and support exemplary training of behavior scientists and scientist-practitioners."
  • The Nursing Department earned full accreditation for 10 years from the distinguished Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. This represents a significant achievement and underscores the excellence of the nursing education provided by Simmons.

Academic Programming

  • The Simmons School of Social Work (SSW) - the first social work school in the nation - housed one of the nation's longest-running community studies on mental health predictors—the Simmons Longitudinal Study. The study tracked nearly 400 residents of Quincy (MA) from the time they entered kindergarten in 1977 until their mid-30s today. The SSW also operates the newly formed Center for Applied & Community Research (CACR), which aims to advance excellence in social science research, training, knowledge transfer and exchange at the School and to extend this work to the broader Simmons College research community. CACR addresses the integration of research, teaching and practice using an interdisciplinary approach and building a bridge between academic science and community science.
  • For the third consecutive year, Simmons faculty will work with the Boston Teachers Union to maintain the city's first public school managed by the teachers union, which was created in summer 2009. This was the first time that Simmons partnered with the city in the creation of a new school.  Simmons faculty are working with the Boston Teachers Union to provide interdisciplinary support, training, and leadership through its education, social work, nursing, library science, and management programs. Simmons students also have opportunities for internships and fieldwork at the school.
  • Simmons nursing students' pass rate on the (NCLEX) Registered Nurse exam is 97 percent for first time takers and 100 percent for accelerated students. The national average is 88 percent. (According to National Council of State Board of Nursing).
  • The Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO) at the Simmons School of Management is an international resource on ways to improve organizational effectiveness by strengthening gender equity and diversity in the workplace. The CGO's research and consulting services address issues related to gender equity and change, globalization, leaderships, and diversity in the U.S., and around the world.
  • Co-sponsored by Simmons College and Beacon Press, the Race, Education and Democracy Lecture and Book Series annually brings a prominent scholar to Boston for a series of public lectures on the topic of race, education, and democracy. The inaugural lectures featured Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College and author of the award winning book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Most recently, UCLA Professor, author, and urban education expert Ernest Morrell presented "Powerful Teaching: Towards a Pedagogy of Global City."
  • The "Sophomore Challenge" is a two-week interdisciplinary course in which sophomore students focus on a broad topic, such as hunger, health and humanity, and create workable and well-researched ideas that could be put into effect in the local community. The students live together on campus, shop and cook together, and work together every day throughout the two-week period.
  • The School of Management administers the annual Silverman Business Plan Competition, a business plan competition for SOM students and graduates, to support women in launching and leading entrepreneurial ventures. As part of the competitive process, participants are paired with faculty advisors who assist them with various aspects of new business creation, such as financial statement development and market outreach. Participants also gain access to established entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, bankers, and attorneys. Winners receive cash and prizes.
  • The Warburg Lecture Series brings diplomats, journalists, and other international relations experts to campus to discuss current issues and events. In recent years, lectures have addressed topics such as Islam in Africa, women and globalization, and Asia. The lectures are led by Simmons current Warburg Chair in International Relations.
  • The Summer Institute in Children's Literature, held every other year, offers students an opportunity to meet award-winning authors, poets, illustrators, editors, and publishers. Through the years, the Institute has featured Avi, Jack Gantos, Lois Lowry, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jerry Pinkney, Maurice Sendak, and many others. The Center for the Study of Children's Literature (CSCL) at Simmons College administers the nation's first Master of Arts in Children's Literature as well as a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Writing for Children.

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